Free Bad Moon Rising - Paranormal Romance by Lorraine Kennedy Page B

the most courageous person in the world, but she didn’t scare easily. That was unless it concerned snakes. Those slithering - slimy reptiles had always scared the hell out of her.
    Finally managing to hit the right button, she waited while the phone rang.
    “Hello.” It was Donny’s tired voice.
    “Could you please come over here?” she asked in breathless gasps. “There’s a rattlesnake in my trailer.” Her words were so rushed that she was sure he probably hadn’t understood a word she’d said.
    “There’s a snake … it was in my bed,” she told him again.
    “Okay. I’ll be there in a minute.” She could hear him stirring from bed, even before the call ended.
    Mya took another look around the living room and kitchen. There was always the possibility the snake had made it out of the bedroom before she did. When she was fairly certain the snake wouldn’t spring out at her from some dark corner, she rushed to the door and unlocked it. Flinging the door open, she stood there to wait for Donny. When she saw him coming, she noticed that he’d brought his police issued gun with him.
    Mya stepped away from the door just before he burst in. “Where’s it at?”
    “I’m not sure, but I think it’s still in the bedroom.” Mya pointed to the closed door.
    Donny cautiously opened the door and peeked inside; a moment later he disappeared into the bedroom.
    Although Mya could hear him moving around, she couldn’t see anything from where she was standing. She was sure that at any moment she would hear the thunderous clap of the revolver being fired, but it never happened.
    Donny was shaking his head when he stepped out of the bedroom. “There’s nothing in there.”
    “Well it must be in here then.” She motioned with her hand to the living room and kitchen area.
    The two of them spent the next twenty minutes searching every nook and cranny of the trailer for the snake, but they couldn’t find anything.
    “Are you sure it was a snake you saw?” he finally asked.
    “Yes it was a snake, but I didn’t actually see it,” she admitted. “But I did hear it … and felt it on the bed with me.”
    “There’s nothing here,” he pointed out the obvious.
    Mya felt stupid for dragging him out of bed in the middle of the night for nothing, but she was sure of what she’d heard. It had to have been a snake. “I’m sorry for waking you up, but there was a snake.”
    At first he didn’t respond. He appeared to be quietly contemplating the situation. Mya knew he was thinking skinwalkers, but she wasn’t ready to accept that possibility.
    “I don’t believe it was a skinwalker. It was a real snake,” she voiced her thoughts.
    “Maybe not,” he shrugged. “But I’ll have someone come and smoke this place with sage anyway … just in case. They hate sage smoke. It’s like holy water.”
    “Are you sure a snake couldn’t have gotten in here, and then back out the same way?” she asked. The last thing she wanted to do was lay awake every night, worrying about critters getting in.
    “This trailer has a sealed underbelly. I can’t imagine a snake would get in … that is unless you left the door open,” he said, arching one brow questioningly.
    “No way. If I have the door open, I always make sure the screen is shut.”
    “If it will make you feel any better, I’ll leave the gun tonight … but only for tonight,” he added.
    He’d already made it clear she wouldn’t be issued a gun. She wasn’t a certified peace officer in Arizona, or any place else for that matter. It was no big deal. She wouldn’t be going back to sleep anyway.
    “I’ll be okay. I’ll just call you if I see it again.”
     
     
     

Chapter Eight
     
    She was so mesmerized by the medicine man’s foreign words and strange movements that she could not bring herself to look away. In one hand he held a smoldering sage stick, and in the other, a large feather. With the feather, he fanned the smoke that drifted from the burning